timd75

No, a great teacher can produce high achievement. 1) Long Island's 2 counties are both in the top 10 counties for highest property tax of ALL the 3,141 counties in America, because their powerful local government has allowed school board levies to spiral out of control. Then their planning councils show the boards how to create mid-level bureaucratic jobs, where much money is wasted. New York spends the highest per pupil and gets 46th Rank in Mean 2010 SAT Scores by State. *******litaxes.blogspot****/2011/05/sat-scores-by-state-2010-10-year-trend.html 2) His "build it and they will come" speech has recently been used by politicians in Hancock County, WV. So they barely passed a school levy in 2010. (15% property tax increase.) Now their school superintendent Sue Smith has to admit that well over 100 students have left the district in 2012, leading to over 3 dozen possible teacher layoffs. ***********wtov9****/news/news/enrollment-drop-likely-leading-teacher-reduction-h/